Privacy and data protection

Surf Coast Shire Council is committed to protecting all personal and sensitive information consistent with the principles set out in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, and the Health Privacy Principles as set out in the Health Records Act, 2001 [referred to in this statement as the ‘Act(s)’].

This Privacy Statement applies to all information collected by Council across the whole Surf Coast Shire website. It does not apply to linked external websites and you should familiarise yourself with privacy statements of any site you link to.

Policy

Surf Coast Shire recognises the need to balance the public interest in free flow of information with the public interest in protecting the privacy of personal information held by the organisation and any contracted service providers. Council also considers that responsible and transparent personal information-handling practices are a key aspect of democratic governance, and is strongly committed to protecting an individual's right to privacy.

Consistent with Surf Coast Shire’s commitment to staff, and our customers, procedures and training have been implemented to promote awareness of all Privacy Principles.

Collection of personal and other information.

Council receives personal information from you via a range of means. Irrespective of how Council receives your personal information, it will only be collected, stored, used and disclosed for the purpose for which it was collected, or a secondary purpose for which you would reasonably expect it to be used. Any other use or disclosure will be based on your informed consent, or as required by the Acts(s) or any other legislation.

Council is required to place some personal information collected on a Public Register, as in the case of planning and building permits, due to legislative requirements. Unless you specify otherwise, your personal information will only be provided on those registers for the primary purpose.

You can access the Surf Coast Shire website and browse anonymously without providing your personal information and without you being identified. Some functions and services provided by this website however, may require you to provide certain personal information. Any personal information provided by you will only be used or disclosed for the purpose for which it was collected.

If you provide Council with your email addresses via this site, it will only be used to respond to your specific enquiries. Your email address will not be added to any mailing lists, or otherwise used or disclosed to any other party without your knowledge and consent, unless specifically required by law.

Collection of anonymous data

Surf Coast Shire may also collect anonymous data through its web server which may include the number, time and date of visits to the site and its pages. This anonymous information is used for statistical purposes and to ensure our website is providing relevant information.

Cookies

This website may use cookies for certain services. A cookie is a block of data that is shared between a web server and a user's browser. Cookies can provide various types of information, depending on how they are used. This may include information about a user's identity and website visiting patterns and preferences. You may set your browser to identify the presence of cookies and to give them the option of accepting or rejecting them.

Access to Personal Information

If you believe that your personal information held by Council is inaccurate, incomplete or not up-to-date, you may seek to view and / or correct this information by contacting the Shire on (03) 5261 0600 and asking for the Privacy Officer or email: info@surfcoast.vic.gov.au.